Pages

April 14, 2009

Why bother talking about the political landscape?

We have a very large and varied electorate. People are busy with their studies, making their careers fly, love life click or ends meet. In all this, the last thing on our mind is the development of our society/ country. We tend to forget that our home is not secure just by locking the door.

I remember asking Guruji that I wanted to overcome my possessiveness (and selfishness). He said – become more possessive – possess the whole country, the whole world, the whole universe! It may sound very interesting – but has a much deeper meaning.

We can talk about why we should take responsibility and make a difference in the world and also how it helps in our spiritual growth. However, if you look at life with another perspective, we can also achieve this by being very selfish. If we want to enjoy our life fully, we need to create an environment conducive for this – at home, at work and on the streets. We need to create a fearless society around us so that we can enjoy our life.

So, for our own self, we need to do much more. One of the key things is making sure we elect a good government. Small steps/ decisions taken by the political leadership can have huge implications over a period of time – they have the potential to make or break nations.

Most of us do not pay attention in the history classes and forget how things have evolved in our society – where do we come from and what is the genesis of our current problems. We form opinions based on headlines and the flashing scrolls on TV news channels and believe them to be totally true.

Today, many political pundits do not hesitate to say that the 1947 partition was one of the biggest blunders in India’s modern history. To satisfy some personal ambitions, the nation was divided. In fact, the Congress leadership carved out the current borders of India on a communal basis!

The whole reservation concept/ special benefits/ allowing differential laws based on religion and caste was the idea of the same leadership. The country created was actually called ‘Hindustan’ – the land of Hindus – but over a period of time, it has become ‘anti-Hindu-stan’.

Ironically, the main leader of Congress – Mahatma Gandhiji – got the country together by doing satsangs (his last words were ‘Hey Ram’). If he were to go around doing satsangs today, his own party would probably brand him communal and create problems for him.

Having given them a chance of 52 years as the main governing party, a lot more was expected from them. It is time to give them some rest to revamp and revitalize. It is time to bring in some fresh blood, some fresh enthusiasm and dynamism to propel India to the next level.

I am not a big supporter/ fan of any specific political party, but given where we stand today, I think we need fresh thinking, fresh ideas and something very different.

What is this about?

It all started by a thought that crossed my mind in May 08. I completed 10 years of my job in Bangalore and it seemed that a technological generation gap had started emerging. Like the older generation who even today think that mobile phones are dispensable, I had not appreciated the power of e-communication!

As soon as you put your attention on some aspect of life, you start seeing only those things around you. There has been so much talk about celebrity blogs and also discovered that my teacher had taken this up. So here I am - presenting my thoughts and ideas. Happy reading and enjoy.